Bomb caller demands freedom for Pussy Riot

Aug 02 2012

RBTH

Interfax

The man who called the Moscow Khamovnichesky District Court on Thursday said that the court was mined and demanded the Pussy Riot punk band members be set free, court press secretary Darya Lyakh told reporters.

"The call came to the court chairman's office, and I picked up the phone. A male voice told me that the court was mined and demanded freedom for Pussy Riot," she said.

Every time a court hears a high-profile case, there is a police detail with a trained dog on guard, she said. "Before the hearing started, the police and the dog had searched for explosive devices. They found nothing," Lyakh said.

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She said that was why she did not doubt "the bomb threat was a provocation."

Regularly, it takes about an hour to check out bomb threats, she added.

The evacuation started at 11:25 a.m. Another handler with a dog, a fire truck and an ambulance vehicle came to the court. The specialists went inside.

Another demand to free Pussy Riot girls was made in a Moscow court in April.

Muscovite Andrei Borodin broke into the office of Moscow's Tagansky Court Chairperson Yelena Ivanova on April 23 to demand freedom for Pussy Riot girls. He tried to hit the judge with a small axe.

The judge resisted the attack and shouted for help. Bailiffs caught the assailant. The court ordered his arrest.

The assailant said he regretted his failure to kill the judge. "Judge Ivanova sends innocent people to prison and extends periods of their arrest," he said. He also said he had stashed the axe in the court building in advance.

According to tentative findings, the man was not drunk. He was charged with an attack on a judge on April 26.